<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Tied in Knots by fauxtales</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27287794">Tied in Knots</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauxtales/pseuds/fauxtales'>fauxtales</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Becoming Human Again [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anxiety Attacks, Fluff, Hair Braiding, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Recovery, referenced panic attacks, soft</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:35:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,266</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27287794</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauxtales/pseuds/fauxtales</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I can braid your hair for you…” Lea runs his fingers lightly through Isa’s hair. It’s a careful touch, afraid that Isa might crumble under his fingertips. Isa’s lips twitch in the mirror and Lea presses a bit closer, resting his chin on Isa’s shoulder. “...if you’d like.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Isa/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Becoming Human Again [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890835</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tied in Knots</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I can braid your hair for you…” Lea runs his fingers lightly through Isa’s hair. It’s a careful touch, afraid that Isa might crumble under his fingertips. Isa’s lips twitch in the mirror and Lea presses a bit closer, resting his chin on Isa’s shoulder. “...if you’d like.”</p><p>Lately, Isa has been distant. Well, Isa has always been a bit distant, and has been more so the last decade, but all of that is over now. They can live their lives without having to pretend they aren’t close, without the belief that they can’t feel.</p><p>Even so, Isa is distant. It’s not on purpose, Lea knows. Isa doesn’t want to be trapped in his mind, floating a thousand miles away as he questions whether or not his feelings are real. None of them do. Lea gets it. He has those moments too. But Isa gets them more often, and generally with more intensity. That’s what happens when you spend a decade pushing down anything that might resemble a feeling with the belief that it’s nothing but a painful memory.</p><p>“....That would be nice.” Isa’s voice is a low rumble in his chest that makes Lea feel warm. He wishes he could wrap himself up in the sound and live there forever. He wishes he couldn’t hear the shake of it as Isa stares into blue eyes and tries to find gold.</p><p>“C'mon. Let’s sit on the couch,” Lea murmurs, his hands coming to rest gently on Isa’s shoulders. He directs him away from the mirror and out of the bathroom, that treacherous place. The mirror was never Isa’s friend to begin with, Lea knows, but with the addition of the scar to his face and eyes that were the wrong color for years, Isa started avoiding them altogether. Now, he seems to be glued to any reflective surface, checking his eyes. It hurts to watch sometimes.</p><p>Lea grabs a brush and some hair ties on their way out. He gets Isa settled on the couch and perches on the arm behind him, brush in hand like a weapon. Isa used to be so put together; now, Lea isn’t so sure when the last time the man picked up a brush was. Working out all the knots comes first. This is always the part that Lea struggles with with his own hair. Long red locks that would rather be a messy mane never like to calm correctly under a brush. That’s what he gets for refusing to let it curl properly. Isa’s hair on the other hand smooths out nicely. Even with the tangles that Lea hits, they come apart under skillful fingers and don’t come back. It’s only a matter of going slow and allowing the hair to lay as it will.</p><p>By the time Lea has all the knots undone, Isa’s shoulders have relaxed. Whatever numb sort of panic Isa had worked himself into when Lea found him, the worst has finally passed. Isa leans into Lea’s touch slightly, sighing in contentment. A smile tugs at Lea’s lips, glad to see he can still be a calming force for his boyfriend. That hasn’t always been the case after all. It’s nice to have it back. As Lea begins to divide up Isa’s hair for a nice french braid, he shifts a bit on the couch. He lets his touch linger on Isa’s shoulder for a moment, then quietly asks “Do you want to talk about it?”</p><p>The tension returns to Isa’s shoulders. Lea wants to sigh, but he manages to hold it in. Expressing that disappointment is only going to make Isa close up more with guilt. Instead, Lea calmly begins to braid. He can only hope that playing with Isa’s hair will be enough to calm him down again.</p><p>It’s a few minutes before Isa responds. Lea goes slow, slower than he really has to with such a simple design; the point isn’t to get it done after all. He doesn’t want to rush Isa.</p><p>“I thought I saw gold.” Isa’s voice shakes and Lea nearly abandons the braid altogether to pull his boyfriend into a hug instead. “In the mirror. I… It startled me. And then I just…” Isa flutters his fingers in the air, a vague gesture that Lea understands perfectly. He gives a small hum in response to show he’s still listening, being sure to keep his hands steady as they continue to move.</p><p>“I couldn’t look away. I was back in that horrible room,” Isa whispers. He draws his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and curling into a ball. Lea has to lean forward a bit to avoid pulling at Isa’s hair. “All that grey and white. And gold. It felt so real, I could almost believe that I was back there and this had all been some sort of dream. That I never escaped.”</p><p>Lea feels something in his throat and swallows hard. He pauses in his task to rub gently at Isa’s shoulder. “But you did escape. You’re here now, with me. We’re never going back there again.”</p><p>“I know.” Isa’s voice is quiet. One hand moves to cover Lea’s on his shoulder and Isa peeks back to look at him. “You drew me out. Brought me back.” Isa’s voice breaks and Lea thinks he might start sobbing along with him. Isa buries his face in his knees. “Thank you.”</p><p>“Of course.” Abandoning the braid, Lea shifts closer. He wraps his arms around Isa, draping his lanky body over Isa’s broad shoulders, trying to be a shield between Isa and the rest of the world. “I’ll do whatever I can to help. I promise.” They stay like that for a while, just holding on to each other, the braid forgotten. Slowly, Isa uncurls. The tension drains from his shoulders again and Lea pulls him back to lean against him. Lea pets lightly at the half-done braid in Isa’s hair and hums softly.</p><p>“You’re too nice to me,” Isa mumbles. Lea looks down at him, at the way he’s curled in slightly against the back of the couch, at the way he’s trying to hide his face in Lea’s chest. Lea smiles softly.</p><p>“Well, considering I love you, I think I should probably be nice to you.” The blush that draws to Isa’s face has Lea beaming. “Don’t you think?”</p><p>“Shut up.”</p><p>“Well?”</p><p>“You’re so annoying.”</p><p>“That’s not very nice!”</p><p>Isa peaks up at Lea, a smile tugging at his lips and a glint back in his eye. Lea’s smile softens into something achingly fond.</p><p>“I really do love you, you know,” Lea whispers. Isa sits up and turns to face Lea, his expression a mirror of the adoration on Lea’s own.</p><p>“I know.” With that, Isa leans in to press his lips gently to Lea’s. It’s a chaste kiss, so different from the ones they shared as Nobodies, and so much better for it. Those were always a bit angry, a bit one sided one way or the other; the kisses they share now, even the rougher ones, are always caring. Always nice.</p><p>When Isa pulls away, he looks breathless and beautiful. Lea doesn’t know when his hand made it back into Isa’s hair, but the braid is non-existent now. “I love you too, Lea.”</p><p>Lea smiles, then carefully runs his hand through Isa’s re-tangled hair.</p><p>“Shall I actually braid your hair this time?” </p><p>“That sounds nice.”</p><p>The smile on Isa’s lips is soft and Lea thinks that if this is the rest of their lives, he really wouldn’t mind. Not one bit.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>